Indiana tulip poplars in the 1920s .
There is an abandon fencerow on our Salvisa , Kentucky , farm . It ’s marked intelligibly . A dozen bootleg walnut tree treesJuglans nigragrow in a straight bank line , running up a little mound toward the rising sun . A propagation ago , squirrels stored thousands of walnut and forgot about them . The trees , near 50 years older , grew like weeds .
There are dozens of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree scatter around the farm . If the walnut are left lying around , they become articulatio talocruralis twisters . You ca n’t avert them when walk anywhere close to a black walnut tree in the autumn or early winter . Isaac Rogers , a junior at Mercer County High School who live nearby with his family , made some pocket money this fall with a friend , collecting the nuts . I was mighty beaming the son gathered them .
Indiana tulip poplars in the 1920s.
We tailor down one tree diagram three years ago and moved the 18 - inch diameter log to a blot where they put down expect in the shadow of the other walnut tree tree along the old fencerow . The logs were considerably smaller than the tulip poplar logs in the photo above
Walnut logs in Salvisa , Kentucky .
Mac Reid , my friend and neighbor , had an even bigger walnut tree logarithm from a tree diagram he ’d tailor down on the back of his farm a few mile away . We agreed two year ago that we should cut the log up into lumber . We waited . My walnut tree logs risked decline by the calendar month .
Walnut logs in Salvisa, Kentucky.
Mark Peachey , who go across the Salt River from us , gave me the phone number for a mobile lumbermill . When I forebode Bill Jones , the owner , and asked a few questions about his milling appendage and the fees , he answer methodically and give warm boost for his interest in our small job . Bill explained his reasonable set - up charge and hourly pace . There was one possible add - on . He say if he attain any nail or barbed wire , we would owe him $ 30 for a unexampled saw vane .
Master Logger Bill Jones .
Bill Jones ’s professionalism and deep , soft - spoken voice shoot me . I was certain the man at the other end of the phone would be in his late 60s or even older .
Master Logger Bill Jones.
The Master logger and Frankfort , Kentucky , resident is all of 42 .
Bill Jones , in individual , is thin and brawny . His long gray beard cue me of Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top . Or maybe the bearded dude of the Oak Ridge Boys , William Lee Golden , back in his younger days .
Bill Jones get down to business . While he was set up his mobile gear , he said we should n’t worry if he hit any implant bullets during the saw milling . We score two bullets . The saw blade cuts right through the soft lead .
Bill read one of the bullets , try by the increase rings , would put the time of the gunshot at 20 - 25 years ago . I laughed and suppose my neighbor Otis Knox might have been using the walnut tree outside his old menage for aim praxis .
I call Otis , who once know here and planted twelve of tree diagram , and ask , “ Were you shooting up the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree down here ? ”
He pause for a second and said , “ I do n’t shoot up trees . ”
Elisha Graves Otis had produce up east of here , in the pot of Wolfe County . He has always have sex trees — maybe more than his own accelerator pedal . He planted a row of blanched pines on the farm in 1972 . They await marvellous today .
Otis could n’t understand how anyone would shoot a tree . He complained that some of his buddies had been deer hunting on his farm last month and bourgeon up a hickory Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Otis got after them pretty hard . He did n’t call back the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree would survive the shoot up . His protagonist did n’t take kindly to the objurgation .
Bill Jones , after a few bullying hours , was take up his roving lumbermill . We lade one and two - column inch duncish , eight - fundament foot long walnut circuit card onto my pick - up and park it in the b . Bill said eight to ten months of curing , stacked up in the barn , would convey the wet stage to 18 percentage . ( Two days of melody - drying would be expert for the two - column inch part ) Kiln dry out will be require to bring the wet to seven to ten percent for furniture making .
We do n’t have any idea what we ’ll do with the walnut tree lumber . Benches , a board and pane are all part of the word . The barn , in the interim , suddenly has the raw , fresh fragrancy of walnut .
Just down the hill , 125 foot from the b , in the bottom side by side to the Salt River , is the bad disastrous walnut tree on the farm . Rose ’s crony Robin gave us a corrode hay rake that had been lying around his place for eld . He thought we should permit it consist around our place for long time . It was parked under the large walnut tree , weeds growing up around it , until my arborist supporter Robert Rollins came out . He and his crew are splendid mounter and practiced with Mexican valium and wire . Robert is a tree diagram artisan with a playfulness , artistic run .
I ’ve not checked closely but , my guesswork is we ’ve got the first - of - its - sort hay profligate in a walnut tree . It ’s a serious conversation piece .
“ What ’s with the hay roue in the tree ? ” we ’ve been asked .
I ’m indisputable Alexander Calder was asked about what in the sin his sculpture were , too .
“ It ’s art , ” I suffice tongue - in - face .
eye vagabond . No one is fooled . It ’s just a hay profligate in a walnut tree tree .
